UGI Corp. announced Friday that its energy marketing subsidiaryhas agreed to acquire almost all of Conectiv’s commercial andindustrial marketing business. The acquisition by UGI EnergyServices is expected to be completed on Oct. 1.

Under the trademark of GASMARK, UGI Energy Services will addConectiv’s former customers to its customers which are served by 15natural gas utility systems in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Marylandand Virginia. Details of the sale were not released.

UGI’s acquisition of Conectiv’s customers is similar to thecompany’s previous acquisition of commercial and industrialcustomers from Columbia Energy Services in the same region.”Together, these acquisitions added over 20 Bcf of sales volume toGASMARKr,” said Lon R. Greenberg, CEO for UGI.

“These transactions are another example of our continuing effortto grow earnings in our core businesses and those closely relatedto them. We have focused our energy marketing business on retail,commercial and industrial natural gas customers in regions that areserved easily by the same pipelines that serve our core gas utilitybusiness.”

UGI said its plan is to grow earnings by 6-to-10% a year, andits dividend about 3% a year. Both acquisitions are expected to beaccretive to earnings immediately.

The acquisition marks the second time in a month that UGI haspurchased assets from Conectiv. On Sept. 5, UGI acquired a portionof Conectiv’s heating, ventilating and air conditioning servicebusiness (HVAC) for an undisclosed sum. The assets, which involvesthe commercial and residential services units located insoutheastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware, generated over $40million in revenues.

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.